Different project managers use different tools for calculating the project progress. Now, for your ease, experts have introduced a wonderful tool for measuring the progress rate of the project that is called S-curve in project management. S-curve helps you find even little details about the progress of your business that you never knew before. 

Complete guide on What is S-curve in project management?

Do you want to know what is S-curve in project management? No worries, here is the explanation about an S-curve in project management. S-curve is a graphical illustration in terms of mathematics that illustrates the cumulative values against each by plotting the curves that look like S. It is not a proper S-shape but a loose shape. It illustrates two values against each other by telling the frequency or average work done or the profit rate against the market. 

·       S-curve business tool helps you analyze the progress rate of your project and decide where you are standing and whether it is up to your expectations or needs something more to do.

·       It shows the S-shape of the project progress because the progress rate at the start of a project is very slow. In the mid, it gets its peak, and it also slows down at the end. 

·       So, it makes loose or slightly S-shaped curves representing your project progress. 

If you get proper knowledge of what is S-curve in project management, you will come to know how much diverse it is as its shape changes with the data you have collected. Depending upon the increase and decrease of the progress rate, the curve can become lighter or deeper.

How to create an s-curve in project management?

When you have a basic know-how of what is S-curve in project management, you need to dive in-depth to get details of the S-curve. You need to understand the mechanism of developing the S-curve of your project in the ways you can use it for analyzing your project progress or deficits that you need to fix. 

So, you need to learn how to develop the S-curve in project management and how to understand it. You can create S-curve by following the steps shared below. 

Set a timeline for your project 

First of all, you need to understand for what purpose you are creating the S-curve of your project. Before you draw an S-curve, you should have developed a timeline for your project. It would surely help you to decide your way. 

For this purpose, you can use your Gantt chart and link it to the software you are using for making graphs. This thing would help you to set an average value of the work you and your team need to do in a week or a month. 

Divide the tasks into chunks and mention their schedule 

Another possible thing that would help you get a detailed S-curve in project management is dividing the tasks into chunks and deciding how many of these you will be doing in one day. 

It will show the date of each day's progress in the form of a graph. It will show the progress of your project in the form of a curve with the relevant percentage. Each day's progress leads to a week's progress, and then it leads to a month's progress. 

Calculate the cumulated value 

Now, it is time to plot the graph of this cumulated value of working hours against the number of days. It will show you how much you and your team have succeeded in getting the goal by showing the percentage and an S-shaped curve. 

Compare progressive work 

By getting the cumulated value of the work to be done against the days of the week, you can compare the work performance. You will be comparing the actual work progress against the expected work progress. By doing so, you will analyze at which point your project is running and where you need to improve. 

Uses of S-curve in project management 

We also discuss the amazing multiple uses to understand what is S-curve in project management and how it can benefit us while dealing with the project. Here, we shall discuss some spectacular uses of the S-curve in project management to elaborate on its efficiency and the need for a project manager. 

·      Plot baseline S-curve graph 

S-curve in project management is a wonderful tool for estimating the time, money, and raw data or material the project manager will be using. It helps to deal with project expectations by drawing a baseline S-curve graph.

 This baseline S-curve contains information on the requirements of the projects and time as well. It also includes expected delays in deadlines, extensions in the project budget, and requirements. So, you can in a project management methodology, project managers use S-curve for building the right expectation graph.  

·      For observing earned value management 

Earned value management is also one of the types of S-curve that helps the professionals to evaluate the productivity, progress rate, and success of the project. It not only evaluates the success of the project but it individually shows the progress of team members by relating it to their task completion reports. 

So, the biggest use of this wonderful tool we do is the distribution of tasks and their distribution among the team members. The earned value management tool is present in many project management apps to serve you. 

By using this modern technical tool of project management, you can vary identify the areas you need to improve and also track the cumulative effort of the team.

·       To plot percentage graph. 

Different C-curve graphs use different presentative ways to show data analysis. One of the S-curve graphs represents the values in percentage, and you will measure or calculate the progress in percentage form. In this method, you can visualize the comparison of the expected cost product and the actual cost product of your product. It can help you to figure out the labor and cost related to determining how much labor your need to complete this project for how many days, and how much you will be spending.

·      Quantitative comparison 

S-curve is the most beneficial tool that the project managers use while dealing the industrial product manufacturing projects or construction projects. It helps to identify the product manufacturing need. By using an S-curve graph, you can track the number of goods produced per day and then compare it with the expected customer need. 

By doing so, you can conclude whether the rate of product manufacturing matches your need or if you need to improve it. If you find any ambiguity, you can look for scheduling the work time or the number of laborers to meet the demand.

·      The banana graph shows the minimum and maximum values. 

A banana graph or schedule range graph consists of two S-curves to show minimum and maximum values that a project manager can expect as his project outcome. It helps to idealize the expected cost your project may need to complete in both aspects, minimum and maximum. This way is mentally ready, and you keep the stakeholder informed about the expenditures of the project.

Reasons the project managers use S-curve in project management 

Project managers keep looking forward to the methodologies to plan cost, labor, and product requirement estimation. After collecting information about what is S-curve in project management, the project managers are of the benefit in the following aspects.   

The project manager can track the progress.

The project managers are now of the advantage by getting knowledge of what is S-curve in project management. They are at ease tracking the progress of project progress by comparing the number of products with the timeline. In this way, they can identify the scope of the project and bring about required changes where they need. 

Helps to correlate slowdowns 

S-curve in project management is also helping the project managers to identify the areas where the production of the product is not going up to the mark. They can correlate the expected production with the actual by working on different aspects like laborers working hours or the availability of the resources.

Helps in making the right predictions 

Not only does the tracking system of the project becomes efficient because of the S-curve tool, but it also helps to make good predictions through this tracking. The project manager can predict how much more resources or costs he requires to complete this project. He can maximize the laborers' work to compete with the increasing cost product of the project.

Helps to set expectations about team and tasks 

A project manager can set better expectations about the team and task. They will use the S-curve graph to represent the expected team members to work for a supposed number of days and the cost required for the project. 

Final Remarks:

The project managers are getting maximum benefits, especially plotting expectation graphical representation of the cost product and the teamwork after getting skilled knowledge about what is S-curve in project management.